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Fascism

I believe the US should have sided with the Vietnamese instead of going against them. 

Fascism

The Vietnam War could have been avoided and Vietnam could have easily become the US's ally in the Cold War. The Vietnamese government was literally going "Pick me! Pick me!" to America as an ally, when they declared that they would model their government after the French. America needed as many capitalist democratic allies as it needed. 

Instead, because the US was scared of angering the French over their lost colony, America dropped more bombs on Vietnam than in all of WWII against the Axis powers. 

The Viet Cong were forced to become communist because the communists were the only ones willing to help them, and the Viet Cong didn't want to become a French colony again. 

This happened to other countries too. If a country wanted to be unified, independent, and out of the Cold War, the US considered them as communists and made more enemies. 

MayCaesar

The US did not fight against Vietnam as a state. The US fought against the pro-Soviet rebellion in Vietnam that rose against the legitimate government. Siding with Viet Cong would not be a sound decision in the context of the Cold War.

Could the war be avoided, with the developing situation ignored? It could - however, again, in the Cold War, any political or territorial succession would simply empower the bolder side, leading to a more aggressive expansion of its sphere of influence. In other words, giving Vietnam up to Soviet Union without a fight would result in a different war, similar (or larger)) in scope, and the lost assets could never be recovered.